Violence, threats or blackmail: 361 mayors were attacked in 2018

2019-08-11T09:27:56.488Z

The Sunday newspaper unveiled Sunday, August 11, figures from the Ministry of the Interior on the attacks of mayors. Physical violence, threats or blackmail, these &amp; nbsp; are increasing between 2016 and 2018. &amp; nbsp;

The Sunday newspaper unveiled Sunday, August 11, figures from the Ministry of the Interior on the aggression of mayors.Physical violence, threats or blackmail, these are increasing between 2016 and 2018.

While Jean-Mathieu Michel, former mayor of the city of Signes, died Monday, August 5, after being overthrown by the van whose he wanted to verbalize the occupants, the Sunday newspaper (JDD) published, Sunday, August 11, unpublished figures on the attacks of mayors in France.

Based on a note from the Ministry of Interior on 8 August, the JDD reveals that in 2018, 361 mayors and deputy mayors were victims of "deliberate attacks on their physical integrity". In detail, nearly 60% of these elected officials have been threatened or blackmailed while 40% have been victims of "non-villainous physical violence".

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Apart from these attacks, 178 elected officials have been the target of "insult to the depositories of authority," says the JDD, which also highlights the increase in attacks on elected officials between 2016 and 2018.

"In total, the elected victims of injury to physical integrity and outrages were 317 in 2016 and 332 in 2017, an increase of 5% over the previous year, which was 9% in 2018 compared to 2017 ", can be read in the JDD .

Less physical violence but more blackmail and threats

Even if we observe a slight decrease in the attacks on the physical integrity of elected officials in the first seven months of 2019 (-2%) compared to the same period last year, threats and blackmail are rising, with an increase of 20%, in 2019.

At the funeral of Jean-Mathieu Michel, President Emmanuel Macron promised, through years of a message read by the Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Jacqueline Gourault, to "personally ensure that in the face of incivilities and disintegration in some of the meaning of the State and the Nation, the answer is always firm, exemplary and without complacency ".